Centenarian among honourees at West Indies Social Club’s 75th gala

NEW YORK:

When the Hartford, Connecticut-based West Indies Social Club of Hartford holds it 75th anniversary gala on May 3, among those who will be honoured will be a 102-year-old Jamaican who is a co-founder of the club.

Kenneth Bennett Sr, a Jamaica-born trailblazer who is the only surviving founding member of the club, will be honoured along with 11 others. Bennett, who was born in Clarendon and attended Main Ridge Parochial High school in Jamaica, was a mere 20-year-old among the first batch of Jamaicans recruited to work as farmers in the United States to assist in the war efforts under the United States and British Governments’ War Manpower Commission.

Bennett, like other farmworkers left their home with the promise to help with the labour shortage, earn a living and send money back home to support their families.

He recalled that on May 7, 1943, he was one of 4000 Jamaicans who left Kingston Harbour on the David C. Shanks, a military sea transportation that served with the US Army during World War II. They travelled west through the Gulf of Mexico for four days and five nights because ‘snipers were everywhere’. They landed in Fort Pontchartrain and from there they travelled north and began working in the agriculture and tobacco fields.

Bennett was also among those who came to New York and worked in the canning factories. From there, he moved to Connecticut where he worked in the apple orchards and tobacco fields.

He recalls working in the tobacco industry as difficult. Their hourly wage was 50 cents with lots of overtime. All the work was “piece meal” from picking strawberries to potatoes. Potatoes were 10 cents a box. In order to make as much as they could each day, they would “eat lunch with one hand and work with the other hand.”

He says each worker was also required to sign a dependent form so that one dollar could be taken from their pay each month to send home to their families who were then able to access (draw) this money.

EARLY COMMITMENT

Speaking to his early commitment with the association, Bennett recalls that during the time of segregation, himself, fellow Jamaicans and other West Indians wanted somewhere they could celebrate their culture and consume their native dishes.

Out of this desire, they began meeting in church hall basements but soon decided to form their own club. At first they hit upon the name “Jamaica Club” but changed it to the West Indies Social Club as there were others from other Caribbean islands involved.

They founded “A Home Away from Home,” the West Indian Social Club of Hartford, which was incorporated in the State of Connecticut on October 27, 1950.

Today at 102 years, Bennett still gardens and grows his own vegetables which he shares with neighbours. He also bottles his homemade tonic which he sells to others.

Bennett was honoured by the Jamaican Government in 2022 with the Badge of Honour for Meritorious Service.

Among this year’s honourees are the Jamaica-born Mayor of Bloomfield, Danielle Wong, the Jamaica-born Mayor of Windsor, Nuchette Black-Burke, and the Mayor of Hartford, Arunan Arulampalam. The mayors will each receive community service awards.

St Lucia’s Consul General to New York, Jeremiah Hyacinth, will be recognised for outstanding leadership. Dr Troy Monroe will be honoured for his contributions to education, while healthcare advocate James Michel and Hartford Council President Shirley Surgeon will also be recognised.Two students will also be presented with scholarships during the evening’s proceedings.

Veronica Airey-Wilson, chair of the 75th gala committee and a past president of the West Indies Social Club, told The Gleaner that, from its humble beginnings, the West Indies Social Club has grown to become a beacon of what can be achieved when people unite and work together.

“The West Indies Social Club has become a home away from home for many in the West Indian communities, not only in Hartford but across Connecticut,” she said.

Airey-Wilson, who also served in the past as deputy mayor of Hartford, said that the West Indies Social Club serves as an example for the entire community.

“It is a big deal for our community because no other such organisation has been around for 75-years,” she told The Gleaner.